Sunday, July 14, 2013

Thoughts on Today's Verdict

Woke up this morning with
a deep pain in my heart when I discovered that George Zimmerman was acquitted.
We will find out in the next days and weeks just how much pain this inflicts.
All I can think of is how I would feel if my Black grand daughter Avery, the light
of my life, was a boy. A grand father should never have to think such thoughts.

What’s makes the verdict all the more more
painful is that the situation that led to Trayvon Martin’s death is one that is
very familiar to me. I have walked in George Zimmerman’s shoes. I
have been on block patrol in my Brooklyn neighborhood. I've escorted very tough
kids off my block when they've come to cause trouble. I've run basketball
leagues in tough neighborhoods where I've had to make peace with neighborhood
drug dealers. If that were me on patrol. nothing would have happened to Trayvon
Martin. I would have approached him politely with an air of confidence and
concern, as one physically confident person to another, showing him respect. And he, like the hundreds of the young people I have dealt
with from comparable backgrounds, would have shown me respect back. But this incident took a different turn
because of what George Zimmerman brought to the table, with the result that a
young life of promise was snuffed out. Why, because Zimmerman was a scared,
insecure man who needed a gun to establish his authority. If he were a strong
confident person who knew how to speak to young people who came from tough
neighborhoods, there would have been no conflict and no need for a gun. This is
the basis of good police work as well as good youth work. The best police
officers command authority without every having to use their guns.

One more comment, for
those who say Trayvon Martin was a “wannabee thug.” I grew up in a neighborhood
where many young people were “wannabee thugs,” including me. I survived that
phase and went on to be a college professor. So when I run into “wannabe thugs”
during my teaching and coaching, I relate to them well, since I was once one of
them. We understand one another. There was no mutual understanding on that fateful night in Florida. If George Zimmerman had been more respectful,
and more tolerant, and more secure,
Trayvon Martin would have survived that encounter and lived a productive life. Who
knows, he might have even ended up to be a college professor like me.